The Tablet Era is Here

By Jim Lundy
I’ve been covering Tablets since before the iPad came out. In fact, I wrote about future eBooks and Digital Paper way back in 2000, seven years before they actually appeared. When it launched last year (note, the iPad has been on the market for just over 19 months), the iPad was met with surprise and some resistance. That didn’t stop users. In fact, a post I wrote in August 2010 (iPad Envy: How Apple caught the PC Industry off-guard) generated a lot of interest.

Jump ahead to the end of 2011 and the Tablet Era is picking up speed. Businesses see their benefit and they are not waiting for some future OS. Tablets are becoming much more than a viewing device, especially if you plug-in a keyboard. Fear not, a Voice UI is not far off. Tablets also have powerful processors inside of them, which is what makes them so good at doing all of the things micro apps ask of them. With all the new apps and ones that are yet to be, we are entering a new era of computing. It isn’t age specific either. Given the simplicity of the OS, the device and the apps themselves, 1 year olds and 80 year olds can use them.

Given all this, the question is, what do you want your tablet to do today? Often, there is an app for that. All kidding aside, Tablets and smartphones are unleashing new capabilities that is making life more convenient. They certainly are making life more difficult for consumer electronics manufacturers.

Of course, our upcoming special report on Tablets covers this all in detail. You’ll be as surprised as we were when we tore off the cost covers in our ROI report. Make no mistake, the Tablet Era is here. The question is, how is your enterprise going to take advantage of this shift?

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